Assassinations (Part 2)

…

It felt like an arrow stabbed right through the heart. She was accused of a massive crime, and that was murdering the leader of the Alidia Kingdom.

"Pio… did you really did something like that?" Marco asked with a face of disbelief.

"No… I don't kill king. I will never do that…" said Pio nearly crying.

"Demon! You're trying to play victim behind these people?" said the knight captain harshly.

"Miss Nina… I'm scared. I'm scared…! They're scary…"

A brief moment of silence. Nina crouched down to her and asked her dearly, "Pio… I want to believe in you, you really don't do something as vile as that, right?"

"No… why would I…?" said Pio leaning to her chest in tremble. "Please… don't leave me, please…"

"…I will never leave you, Pio." Nina stated boldly. "S-Sister…!"

"…indeed, we shall never leave our friends hangin'. If there's some weirdo going after our buddies, then it is a must for us to defend them." Marco stated bravely. Together with Scias, they draw their weapons. "Our apologies, good knighty men. This girl is innocent. You guys are falsely charging her."

"Yeah…" Scias nodded. His katana is ready to be swung at any rate now.

"I see… then with this, I will see you as enemies of Alidia. And our enemies… must die." The knight captain stance with them as hostiles, now, with his knights beside him, he is willing to execute the accomplices and bring the little girl to court.

Two knights run into them, slashing them on point. But with quick reflexes, Marco dodged them while Scias parried the attack, protecting the girls behind them.

"Nina, Aily, get Pio to safety. We'll fend them off!" Marco shouted. "Come on!"

"No, Marco." Nina stated with a scary voice. Her magical cane is already swirling with dusty wind. "If they're enemies, then… we shall fight them together."

"Uh-oh. Scias, swipe left!" said Marco to his friend to avoid Nina's magic line of attack.

"Thruster Windforce!"

From her cane, aimed right at the knights in front of her, comes a green magic circle. From which launches a wave of wind combined with the dusty air of the desert and rams into the knights, blowing their formation apart.

"Come on, Marco. We must get out of here, quick."

"B-But our goods were still in the inn, sister!"

"Ignore them, Aily. We can replace them later!"

"Y-Yeah…" Scias agreed.

The party escapes in full motion. The knight captain got back up and rallied his men to relay information to everyone in the kingdom to kill Marco and his friends while taking Pio into custody.

"Where's the gate?" Marco asked quickly.

"Through here!" Nina leads the way. They hastily headed to the main gates, but alas, when they reached there, more than a hundred men blocked the path.

"Ohohoh, yeah, great… super great!" Marco sarcastically yelled. "M-Miss Nina… what should we do…?"

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here in no time."

"Easy to say, Nina, but where to go? I'm not an expert in this kingdom's layout." Marco commented.

"I know the way. Follow me, guys." Nina stated surely.

Behind them, a company of soldiers is chasing them down. "Yeeesh, that's too many of them, like what, forty runners?!"

"Don't stop running, keep going!" Nina shouted. They're entering a wide road but there's nobody there aside them and the chasing soldiers.

Past the wide road, Scias saw an overloaded wagon filled with wooden barrels that hasn't been tied yet. In the same time, Marco spotted a pile of boxes, he has an idea.

Scias suddenly shifted to the right and slammed the wagon's hull with his foot, destroying it, causing the barrels to fall and roll on the road. In the same time, Marco fetched the boxes on the run and found out something.

On the boxes written out: "EXPLOSIVES, DO NOT TOUCH"

He grabbed a dynamite roll and passed it to Scias. "Scias, lit this up, man! We could use this to slow them down! That wall over there looks fragile, throw there!"

"Got it." *SRASSH!*

Scias casted a tiny fire to light up the fuse and quickly threw it into the barrels. "Oi! Why did you throw the dynamite there?!" Marco asked. He did not expect Scias would throw it elsewhere.

Scias looked at him while running and says, "About that… I saw some white writings on those wooden barrels…"

On the wooden barrels written out: "GUNPOWDER, NO SMOKING"

Shortly, the dynamite roll explodes violently, causing a massive chain reaction to the barrels that spilled on the road, lighting up a wall of flames and explosions on the road. Most of the soldiers chasing them were knocked out instantly. But some also remain persistent on keeping the pressure on the chase.

"Dude, you are crazy nuts!" Marco shouted.

"Says the one that was far crazier," Scias replied meekly.

The girls in front of them were surprised. "What the hell was that?!" Aily asked loudly. "That's a loud explosion, what did you two do?!"

"Ah, worry not, Aily. It's just a small flame." Marco stated while gritting his teeth. "What?!"

"We're nearly there, don't stop now! There has to be a gate hidden within that section of the wall…"

Their movement halted. "N-No way!" Nina said unbelieving. In front of her, a gate leading to outside world is blocked by someone. Someone they knew.

"Sean…!"

"This ain't too good, guys. Sean is a man of justice, and I don't think he would let us through that easily—

All of sudden, Sean points his sword to his left and shouts, "GO!!!"

Unexpectedly, Sean tells them to run. Without any further ado, Marco and his friends sped off the road and headed to where Sean pointed, which turned out to be a secret passage.

When Marco and his friends are in, Sean encounters the Alidian soldiers. "Hey, you, Naprean bastard, where did they go?!"

Sean played a poker face, and he has prepared one magic remotely, ready to fire at any time. "Hey, fool! Where did they go?!"

All of sudden, Sean's eyes expands widely and simultaneously shouted, "LOOK OUT! AAARHGHG!"

Sean was hit by an incoming arrow, which was his very own magic, the Arrows of Light. He had prepared it the moment he heard a person that shared the same characteristics as Marco on the run for keeping a criminal. He expected to shoot it at the soldiers, but who could've thought that he has to play victim.

"Grrgh…" Sean tries to hold the pain.

"Watch out, the enemy's still here!"

"Don't be a fool, you all…! T…They've gone…" Sean lifted his right arm and pointed his finger, "…to that area over there… HURRY!!!"

Without any further ado, the knights change their direction to where Sean pointed. "You heard him boys, go there, now!"

"Yes, sir!"

"…This is the result of getting into our inside affairs, foolish Naprean." With that, the last knight left off into the fray.

"Heheh… such unthankful bastards, no wonder this kingdom is filthy. Arrgh… firing my own element at myself really hurts a lot, huh…? I better get to that woman and get my arse healed right away…"

Sean forcefully stands up and walks with a limp while pressing the injury on his waist.

And with that, Marco's party managed to escape and went into hiding.

…

..

.

Night time arrives…

The party hides under the ground, a sector that was made by the former Napreans during their visit to this kingdom due to the massive discrimination upon them. No Alidians will ever know the hidden underground bunker they made.

Sean is bandaged on his waist while Nina slowly heals him with her magic. "Goodness, Sean, why would you hurt yourself to save us?"

"Nnngh… no big deal, it's just that… yeouch! That hurts, lady!"

"..Aaaand there, I hope you won't stab yourself with a holy elemental arrow again. It's too hard to heal for me, you know?"

"It was necessary, mate. Now's the questioning, what's the big deal with you folks bringing a criminal along?" Sean pointed to Pio. "If you'd let them have her, you people might've been able to leave off this kingdom unscathed, you know?" said Sean while donning his shirt and armor back.

"Well, she's just joined our party, dude. I mean, it's out of nowhere, why would she be called out as a murderer?" Marco explained.

"Oh, yeah? There's some chances she could've killed the king, mate—

"Pio won't do something cruel like that!" Pio stated in horror. She leaned together with Aily onto Nina's lap. "I said there's a possibility. Not judging you completely as the culprit, little one."

"Talking about culprit, Sean… would you care telling us about it?" Scias asked.

"Oh, um… huh, wait, what?! You guys did not know?"

"Well, that's why I'm saying it's out of nowhere. We don't even know the details about what's going on exactly." Marco explained again.

"Good god… you guys are crazy enough to neglect important news. I dare say you guys were the crazy bastards that caused the big explosion. Amirite?!"

"Yeah… kinda like that," Marco reluctantly confessed. Sean let out a longing breath.

"You see… last night, the King of Alidia was murdered by an unknown killer. There are traces of massive poisonous liquid on his majesty's room. I thought it must've been a demon that murdered the king, but all of sudden, they gave me a picture of that little girl and said that she is the killer, no doubt."

"That's just straight up slandering." Nina commented. "A cruel falseness!" She added.

"Mr. Sean… Pio was with us all this time, there's not even a chance she would leave the inn. She slept like a puppy on the couch yesterday. I can even hear her snorting."

"I agree. Pio can't be the one who did it." Nina stated. "Miss Nina…" Pio wailed. "I'm sorry… because of me, you and Mister Marco got into trouble…"

"It's okay, Pio. You're a part of our party, a family now. It is natural that family members protect each other." Nina soothed her feelings. "You're not going to leave me alone…?"

"That's a big no, Pio. I already saw you as a cute sister like Aily."

"W-Wha, s-sis!" Aily pouted adorably.

In reality, Aily actually hated Pio for taking her sister's attention away from her. She was the most reluctant person to accept her into the party. She wanted to dump her, to get her off Nina's wrists.

But the situation has changed. Aily cannot simply allow her to be taken away because someone falsely blaming her for a crime that she didn't even do, especially when that person is a part of the party.

When she thought about it again, she remembered that Pio's sister left her for a long time probably abandoned her. Aily empathizes on that fact. She knew how it feels to be alone without someone dearly to her on her side.

"…I will not let her be alone. I'm very childish, even till this day."

Sean finished donning his armor back and stood up. "Hiding in this bunker wouldn't be a good choice forever. I redirected you people to hide here because I saw tens, no probably hundreds of voluntary soldiers gathering around the kingdom's outer wall. They want to see the culprit publicly executed."

"That's horrible." Aily stated. "It's normal, little kid. A criminal would've been executed publicly so that he or she will become an example to other criminals to surrender. While the people watching him or her getting executed will gain a massive morale that their hometown will be much safer than before. It happens in big kingdoms, even the empire from my world of Gaia. As a soldier… I know it."

Pio looked heavily disturbed by Sean's information. "I don't… want to die…"

"You're not gonna die, kid. Unless we find the true killer, we shall be locked here in this kingdom forever."

"Yeesh, that's just cruel." Marco commented.

"But don't worry, folks. I have some good news."

Scias who was closing his eyes while leaning back on the bunker wall stands steadily again and looked at him. "Do tell."

"We're going to hunt the REAL killer down. Tonight."